Tonya and PQBON's WebLog

Hollister Hills National Hare Scrambles '04 - or why I suck...

My day started by getting up at 5am and pushing Tonya out of bed (I have her shower first because it takes longer for her to get dressed). I rested while she showered, then showered and got dressed. We put the food in the truck and left for Hollister Hills. We were able to leave because the day before I packed my race bag, bought new tear offs (the ones I was sold when I bought the goggles were for the wrong type of goggles) and got the right side panel back grounds (also wrong when I bought them) and loaded my YZ250F in the back of the Titan). The fact that friday was a day of running around rebuying things I thought I already had really set the tone.

Hint... I DNFed

As we drove the skis varied from clear to raining to clear again. We were greeted at the front gate by the welcome wagon and told that because of our 4 wheel drive we were to proceed to the muddiest upper level parking. At this point I dropped the titan in 4hi and continued. We were greeted at the top of the hill by row after row of trucks. But I noticed a muddy parking field that we could cut across to park on the opposite side of. This was slow going. We wound up crabbing across (we were pointed upwards but moving mostly across the mud. Until we got to a slightly more substantial area to park in. This trip did not make Tonya happy. We then proceeded to eat a bit and then walk down to the registration table.

At the registration table we were turned away because registration was just for the vet class until 10:30am. It was only 8am. We then attempted to pick up my prepaid shirt. However, they couldn't find one set aside in my name and I had to jump though hoops to get a long sleeve medium. We hiked back up to the truck (Tonya didn't enjoy this either).

Back at the truck we unloaded the bike and I started her up with two kicks. We relaxed and cuddled a little, then I started her up again and road down to the sound check and tried to find the mythical tech inspection. I eventually found the tech after ignoring the routing the security guard gave me and going the way I originally was headed. I passed the sound check with out incident. However, I already noticed the aggressive of my fellow riders as I was muscled past in line once or twice.

After sound checking and not finding the non-existent technical inspection I headed back up to the truck. This would be the last time in a while the bike would run. Tonya and I ate a little more as we waited for Ken and Amanda and the registration to open. At 10am I decided to warm up the YZ250F again. Because it was warm I flooded it. I used the cold start procedure and took it out. I kept kicking it from 10am to 10:20am when I preceded down to the registration booth. I registered and got my bar code and row sticker on my helmet along with my info packet and program. I walked back up to my bike and tried to start it again. While I was jumping up and down, Ken and Amanda showed up. While Ken and Amanda chatted and looked around and talked to Tonya I tried in vain to start my bike. I stopped to eat for a few minutes and kept going. It would sputter and die every once in a while, just enough for me to think the next kick would do it. Then at 12:20pm it started after sputtering for 4 or 5 kicks.

To tell the truth I was pretty exhausted at this point. I had been at IDF all week. I was waking up at 5:45am to get to IDF on time and going to bed at 10pm or 11pm or some times a little later. Then that morning I had gotten up at 5am.

Things go from bad to worse...

The rain started at about 12:30am. It was never more the a heavy drizzle but it was there all the time. Then word came that the race had been pushed from 1pm to 2pm because the Vet race ran long due to scoring barcode issues. We waited. I started the YZ every 20 minutes so the motor wouldn't get cold. At 12:45am I started to get dressed. I changed my boots (putting my old Doc Martins under the truck since they were already covered in mud) and put on my std riding gear (jersey, pants, chest protector, and knee/shin guards). We then all stood around. I noticed my parking neighbor loading up a quad to haul his pit gear down to the pit. I asked him if he had room to bring my gas can down to the pits so that Tonya and Meta didn't have to carry it all the way down (it was a few hundred yards). We then stood around for a while longer in the rain. For a short time we were able to use my neighbors easy up as shelter, but their race was finished and they left. So we stood in the drizzle and some times sat in the truck. At 1:20pm we headed down to the start gate.

The wait for the 1:45pm riders meeting was about 30 minutes of engine idle/reving fun. I was chocking on 2 stroke oil and exhaust and my bike was boiling over its radiator that doesn't have a burp tank so I was now low on coolant. As the coolant burped and smoked out I pushed the bike to the tech inspection and started it and rode it to the starting line. I had some trouble finding my row in the starting line, because starting line was by class, and I choose to ride in the most competitive class the 250cc class. So I made it to the starting line and killed the motor. It was at this point that I saw Tonya at the fence and I waved. I think she saw me because she waved back.

At the starting line it was pretty crazy. They had an optional prayer, I choose not to pray. Most of you shouldn't be surprised by this. Nor was I thrilled about all the pro-america talk going on. It was pretty ironic given that not a single bike in the race was american. Every single one was either Japanese or Austrian. I didn't see any German bikes, or Italian bikes. Since none of the bikes were made in the 70s there really couldn't have been an american bike in the line up.I digress...

The shotgun was fired for the first line and the bikes were started and they took off. I was amazed by the number of people that crashed in the first 100ft. At that moment I decided to hang back from the start and pass people who were on the ground. I did that and I passed a few people who promptly passed my and roosted me to boot. I was now the last person in my class. I caught up with a bunch and passed a few until the first pile up. At the first pile up I grabbed too much front brake and dropped my bike. I couldn't get her started and the next class caught up. I dragged her off the track into a mud flat where I flagellated my self to start it. It started then a KTM 125sx went wide and hit me and complained and kept ramming me to try to pass while I tried to restart rather then just push her bike out of the way. So that told me I was either in with the tiddlers (125s) or the woman's class since she would have been eligible for either. I finally restarted and kept going.

The next down hill I came to was the same story, except I just stalled I didn't fall and I moved off quickly. I had some trouble starting again, so I shifted to third and bump started. This means I held in the clutch rolled like a bat out of hell and dumped the clutch while dropping my ass firmly on the back of the seat to push the rear wheel down to spin the engine while giving it gas. It started. I proceeded.

I flew along some mud in third gear with my front end pointed straight an my rear pointed to the side (I was crabbing my bike just like I had the truck). At this point I started to ride a little better. I was gripping the bike with my legs and not clutching the bars and I was moving. I hit the next slow spot and blew my down shift and stalled in the corner (note to self. I'm going to need a new clutch soon... The yz250f clutch is started to show its age as the friction point is way out at the end of the motion). At this point We headed onto some stuff that should have been easier for me, and it sort of was. It was wide by wooped out trails made of adobe. I was doing OK till I got stuffed in a corner and stalled it again. At this point I was getting dehydrated and sweaty from all the kick starting. I started the bike and pulled one of my diminishing tearoffs. I pulled few for roost and few for falls. Then I rode on. I came to a rocky up hill.I cruised up. That is until I came to the hair pin that had a major rut. I stalled in the rut and was rammed by 4 or 5 250cc two strokes looking to get passed me. I eventually rolled to the wide run out in the turn and restarted with a few kicks. I was getting tired a bruised. I continued up the hill at a quicker pace. I jump about 3 or 4 of the woops and continued up to a wet muddy up hill. I started up when I was suddenly confronted by the rear tire of a 250cc stopped by a 4 bike pile up in front of him. I stalled there and rolled down the hill after decided I couldn't start on the hill (my front wheel was about 2 feet or so from a platue that would have been a perfect restart point. I rolled back and restarted and bounded up the hill.

I was starting to get really really tired. I was down to just a very few tear offs. I had noticed that a lot of the riders weren't even running goggles. That would explain the goggles I had been riding over the whole way.

I came to a rutted out down hill. It was muddy and nasty. I bounced down it OK. Then I came to the muddy flat bellow it. The next down hill I slid and bounced with my feet off of the pegs. I was in control just enough to not crash and not go off the course. I got my feet back under my and stayed in first in the flat transition. I rode to the next hill and got caught up in the next pile up. At this point I fell over. One of the corner workers pickup my bike and help me get to the bottom of the hill in the rut. I then told the corner worker that I was done. I wanted an early return. I couldn't do it. I knew I was out of energy. I knew at that moment that I had yet to hurt my self in any meaning full way. My leg had held out, my arm was still ok. I could still walk. I also knew that the next time I fell I might hurt my self because I didn't have the energy to do anything correctly. I could barley kick the bike and I was in the middle of one of the technical parts of the trails. I decided then and there that I would DNF (Did Not Finish) my first race. Part of me was ashamed. I was crushed to DNF on my first competitive outing since high-school swim team. I was crushed that I had been lapped by the fastest guys in my class. I felt like a looser. My solace was that I could still walk and use a mouse. I wasn't going to need the ambulance, and the photo we joked about being my last wasn't.

I followed sweep down a short cut. It was much easier then the race trails. I was consoling my self on the way down that I was coming off a year of two injuries and I hadn't really riden since I was hurt I also hadn't started to really work out or train. Well, I followed sweep down. We intersected the race track and the corner workers asked sweep to help some one else. He left me with the simple advice of: "Follow this trail... it will dump you in the pits." I followed the trail. It didn't leave me to the pits. He missed a key piece of info. Turn at the gate labeled service vehicles only or something like that. I wound up wondering around until I hit the race track again. I followed the track back and crossed off when I found a ranger. I asked the ranger for help. I told him I was DNFed and wanted back to the pits. He guided my back to a corner worker with a sweep rider who now told me about the open gate I had to go through.

I came down to the pits and decided to park my bike and find Ken, Meta, and Tonya, who I knew would be worried since the fastest 250cc guys were finishing lap 2 already. I ran into Ken, who told them I was OK, while I told the race people that I had DNFed so they didn't send people out looking for me. Tonya and Meta were worried about me.

I rode up to the truck as they walked back. I started getting ready to go. Some butt-pirate asshat had parked in the exit to the field I was in. He graciously offered to move for 5 minutes so I could move all my stuff to another parking spot to load up. Now, he wasn't willing to move to a different spot... He offered to move for 5 minutes and the offer was only good for 10 minutes. I was pissed off. I'm still pissed off. They guy was a royal asshat. If I had had a tow cable I would have dragged his fucking E250 cargo van into the middle of the mud field and left him there in the mud to try to get his two wheel drive POS out. Needless to say we didn't take his offer because we weren't at all ready and he wasn't even offering to move just to pull forward 5 feet to widen an already WAY to narrow opening. The biggest problem was not the opening size but that the opening would put the truck (my Titan) parallel to a gate I needed to be perpendicular to to drive through. We then loaded up everything and Ken and Amanda decided not to wait to see what the asshat was going to do but to go down to there car on foot. (They parked by the road since the drive was impassable to all but 4wd with all the mud.

Finally the asshat showed up and I had him pull forward. I got the truck perpendicular to the gate and started my 5 point turn to get through the gate. The whole time the asshat was just telling me to floor it. Yeah, I was going to do that so that when my front tires hit the gravel/mud drive and suddenly have traction I'm going to go out of control at 40+ mph. Good Idea asshat. Almost as good as blocking in 3 trucks.

We left and the ride home was relatively uneventful. However, when I got home my body stopped compensating and I descended into shock. Actually, I went pretty far into physical shock. I had a fever, aches, and I was in very low awareness mode. However, being familiar with my body, I was pretty damn sure this wasn't related to an injury. Just to be sure I did a few inventories of my body and didn't take any pain killers for quite a while. (Tonya eventually had me take Tylenol to break my fever.) I was in bed sweating, shivering, and burning up while I drank Gatorade to get my electrolytes and hydration and vitamins back in order. I guess in this way I beat Meta; I didn't need an IV to rehydrate, but then I didn't finish my race.

I can't promise my representation of the race is entirely accurate. I think I missed some turns, some falls, some jumps, some straits, and some good riding. I tried not to sound better then I actually was. I honestly think I could have finished if I was in better shape. There where no obstacles that I encountered that I couldn't handle. Now that isn't to say that I go out and seek them out when I ride by my self but I didn't have to drag my bike over anything or ride around anything until my energy just gave out. I did fall a lot but since most of my first few falls were in traffic I can say a lot of people fell. I'm going to get in better shape and thing about doing the next hare scrambles and Hollister Hills. Hopefully I will finish that one.

For now number 980, Will Deutsch Mountain View, Ca has finished 0 races.

My next big task is to recondition my bike. I have to change the oil, the radiator fluid, the wheels and tires, and wash the bike well and clean the air filter. I also need to buy a larger gas tank and buy and install new graphics on the new still in the box body work that is sitting at my house.

That is my story, I reserve the right to exaggerate, lie, and fib about it to make myself less of a looser.

Posted by pqbon at February 23, 2004 6:54 PM | TrackBack